Bad Summer Forecast for Bay
A new report sounds more bad news for the Chesapeake Bay and the people who work and play on its waters.
"Simply put, we're predicting that it's not going to be a good summer out there for rockfish, crabs and oysters that call the bay home," said William Dennison of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, which released its forecast yesterday.
The center is basing its prediction on the heavy winter and spring rainfalls that loaded the bay's biggest tributary with the sixth-highest amounts of nitrogen pollution since monitoring began in 1985.
In the past, polluted water from the Susquehanna River has magnified the size of the bay's oxygen-deprived "dead zone" in the deep waters of the bay's channel. The river drains a giant portion of Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York.
Nitrogen washed from fertilized farm fields and suburban lawns along the river feeds aquatic algae blooms, which use up the water's oxygen when they die. The bay's dead zone has become a summer staple on the estuary, sometimes stretching more than 100 miles from Annapolis, Md., to the mouth of Virginia's Rappahannock River.
The center is not predicting how far the dead zone will extend this year. Dennison said it will likely reach the state line, at least.
The forecast also foresees "low to moderate" algae blooms in the tidal Potomac River this summer. The Potomac's polluted waters have been a frequent target for red tides -- a type of algae bloom known for its color -- especially near the resort town of Colonial Beach.
It also predicts the recurrence of "mahogany tides" caused by a different algae species north of the Potomac. In past summers, algae blooms in the Potomac and the upper bay have closed beaches because of the threat of respiratory and gastric distress caused by toxic algae species.
Yesterday's forecast marked the fourth year in a row that the center has produced the report. Although its accuracy has varied, its dead-zone prediction has been on target. "That's been our poster child for accurate forecasting," Dennison said.
The prediction underscores the need for Virginia and its bay-state neighbors to control the sources of pollution that are choking the bay, said Mike Gerel, the Virginia scientist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation environmental group.
The states have been working since the 1980s to restore the bay, with limited success.
"We've got more dirty waters [according to a state report released
last week], there are catch reductions needed for blue crabs, watermen
are struggling and there are fish kills in the Shenandoah and the
James," Gerel said. "This just adds to the list of things that aren't
getting better."
Contact Lawrence Latané III at (804) 333-3461 or llatane@timesdispatch.com.
It is a Disgrace
RICHMOND
Eight-five percent of Virginia’s waterways are polluted with one or more contaminants, according to a six-year assessment released Monday the Department of Environmental Quality.
The report, which state officials said is the largest and most comprehensive assessment they’ve ever done, is required by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
The areas of impaired or polluted rivers and streams have grown by 1,600 miles of waterways, increasing from 9,002 miles in 2006 to 10,604 miles in 2008, the report states.
The leading cause of pollution in rivers and streams is high levels of E. coli bacteria.
“Agricultural practices appear to be one of the primary sources contributing to the bacteria standards violation,” the report states. “However, urban runoff, leaking sanitary sewers, urban storm sewers, failing septic tanks, domestic animals and even wildlife can also be significant contributing sources.”
In addition, the Chesapeake Bay continues to fail more than ten pollution tests and will not be cleaned up by a 2010 deadline, state officials said Monday.
Officials say a clean up plan, called a TMDL, already is in the works as officials trying to clamp down on new nutrient pollution, PCBs and other contaminants.
For more information, come back to PilotOnline.com later today and read Tuesday's Virginian-Pilot.
you need the waterman to rebuild the oyster reefs
The Virginian-Pilot
© June 11, 2008
Oysters and
watermen in the Chesapeake Bay haven't had good news in a very long time. The
once abundant shellfish population is at historic lows, thanks to disease and
habitat degradation. Crabs are disappearing. So are certain sea grasses.
Pollution in the Bay - nitrogen and phosphorus - is making parts of it
inhospitable for months at a time.
Now, thanks to a
new analysis by The Washington Post that echoes earlier reporting in this
newspaper, the Bay's boosters know that all these years of effort to restore
oysters to the Chesapeake, all the money spent - $58 million, by the paper's
reckoning - hasn't bought any improvement.
In fact, things
are actually worse for the Bay's oysters.
"We're at 1
percent or less (of the oyster's historic population). That's collapsed. We're
still fishing. It's kind of like if we were still whaling on the East
Coast," David Schulte, an oyster expert with the Army Corps of Engineers,
told The Post. "I mean, the population may never recover. It may not
recover now anyway."
The hope, what
there is of it, for now lies outside the Bay, in its tributaries. But if
scientists like Schulte can get it right, such efforts may hold promise for the
rest of the watershed.
The Lynnhaven,
for example, has a recovering oyster population, one that has taken to living
on riprap and concrete artificial reefs as if born to them. As the population
recovers there, it helps seed other oyster colonies in the Lynnhaven watershed.
There has been
similar good news in the Great Wicomico, according to Schulte and Rom Lipcius,
a professor at Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and an advocate for such
artificial reef habitats. Both Schulte and Lipcius, with their eyes on oyster
successes, say they're optimistic about Chesapeake oyster's long-term prospects
in the Bay.
Their solution
isn't particularly complicated: Provide the habitat and the shellfish will come
back. That's different from past strategies, which largely focused on raising
oysters suitable for commercial harvest.
Building reefs,
Lipcius argues, could be as simple as setting concrete blocks underneath
existing docks, where they provide new refuge for oysters and fish. Where docks
don't exist, we could build artificial reefs that don't impede navigation.
The important part, said Schulte, is to build reefs tall
enough to allow oysters to escape the silt and dirt of the Bay bottom.
Yet the state doesn’t allow the
waterman to work all of Virginia’s oyster beds. By working these beds the
waterman would bring the shells back up to the top and as clean shells. These shells
would then have a chance of to have the larvae attach and rebuild the once
abundant fishery. ks
The reefs can be
built out of concrete, as in the Lynnhaven, or out of oyster shell, as in the
Wicomico.
But they must be
off-limits to harvest. Such sanctuaries, if properly built and protected, will
help build healthy oyster populations elsewhere, including in places that can
be harvested.
Expanding such
programs, however, costs money, and requires an expertise and understanding of
the Bay's immensely complicated ecosystem and hydrodynamics. It also requires
spending money to seed even more oysters in places where they can make a
difference.
With little to
show for the $58 million already spent, money might be hard to come by. It shouldn't
be. There is much evidence in the Great Wicomico and in the Lynnhaven of what
works in oyster restoration. Those projects can provide a model for the future.
After all, isn't it better to spend money on oyster restoration tactics that
have worked than on ones that haven't?
Delegate Albert Pollard Addresses Water Quality and Sources of Pollution to Virginia Waterman's Association
Delegate Albert Pollard shared water quality considerations with Virginia watermen last Thursday evening when members of the Virginia Waterman’s Association met in Kilmarnock to determine what can be done to cause compel the government to reverse the worsening condition of the estuary and its economically important marine resources.
In recent weeks the Association has entertained the possibility of bring a class action suit against the Commonwealth of Virginia for failing to meet the requirements of the federal Clean Water Act.
With an eye on a possible litigation, the Virginia Waterman’s Association and the Twin River Waterman’s Association have consulted with White Stone attorney Lee Anne Washington, the daughter of a former Virginia Waterman’s Association president. Washington was present at Wednesday’s meeting, along with Chesapeake Bay Foundation representative Anne Jennings.
Jennings told the watermen that the Foundation had been in court that day with the Philip Morris and that a satisfactory settlement had at last been reached. No specifics were recited, but the Foundation had sued the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality two years earlier for failing to impose lower nitrogen limits on the Philip Morris Company’s wastewater discharge permit.
Pollard delivered a fast moving and highly detailed power point presentation to the Virginia watermen and their guests. When The Journal joined the session, the Delegate was driving home the uniqueness of the estuary and its watershed, noting that its land to water ration is five times greater than anyplace else on earth.
Pollard noted the human population numbers on a watershed that is also home to a billion chickens, 3.3 million cows and a reported 3 million hogs. He emphasized the narrow 18-mile width at the mouth of the bay, a consideration that serious impairs the estuary’s ability to cleanse itself.
Pollard additionally noted that four centuries ago the estuary’s oyster population was able to filter and effectively remove contaminants from the water in three-day intervals. With a seriously diminished oyster population, such cleansing would take almost a year.
The Delegate spoke about the natural and manmade sources of pollution and the marginal progress that already has been made. The conclusion was that too little has been done and time may be running out.
A court order requires bay watershed states to do what is needed by 2010 to remove the estuary from the nation’s dirty waters list. With time running out, bay watchers advise that things are going in the wrong direction, despite efforts to reduce this state’s point source nutrient discharges.
The nutrients credited with declining water quality are nitrogen and phosphorous and sewage plant discharges are but one of many sources of those pollutants that are known to significantly compromise the estuary’s marine habitats.
Agricultural activities account for a significant portion of the estuary’s nutrient loads. Pollard advised that half of the load attributed to agriculture comes directly from manure. With the sewage plant discharge improvements already in being introduced, he suggested that the next best place to make the greatest impact would be the agricultural industry.
Pollard wasn’t targeting Virginia’s farmers. What he proposed was making a concerted effort to waste no time in implementing a set of improvements that would eliminate as much as 88 percent of the estuary’s nutrient loads at a cost no greater than 17 percent of the bottom line for completely eliminating the unwanted nutrients.
According to Pollard’s conjecture, the 88 percent reduction in nutrients could be a tipping point that would allow the estuary and its marine environment to actually rejuvenate itself, delivering a sustainable outcome that wouldn’t bankrupt any of the stakeholders who occupy the fragile estuary’s massive watershed.
Betsy Ficklin
The Virginia Waterman is not the Culprit but the Victim
The Virginian-Pilot
© May 13, 2008
Whether Chesapeake Bay watermen win a federal disaster declaration, and the money that might flow from it, Maryland and Virginia still have an obligation to see them through the crab crisis the states helped cause and are now trying to solve.
The states have new rules designed to reduce the harvest of female crabs by 34 percent, and to give a crashing fishery the chance to recover from decades of nutrient pollution, toxics and overfishing.
When the states announced new limits on harvests earlier this year, and promised more to come, they were finally reacting to the latest symptom of a long-standing problem. Sadly, for the watermen and for everyone fond of their imperiled catch, the cause of the Bay's problems remain to be addressed with similar vigor.
The Chesapeake's woes are rooted in the fertilizer that farmers put on crops and suburban home-owners deposit on lawns; the outflow from inadequate sewage treatment and broken septic systems; the chemicals that run off roads and parking lots each time it rains; the detergents used to clean dishes and clothes. All that stuff, when it washes into waterways, disrupts the ecosystem of the Bay and the economy it supports.
Until permanent changes are made to the behavior of the watershed's human inhabitants, disruptions like the Bay has seen in the crab population and other species will be unavoidable. In the meantime, however, both states have an obligation to those suffering in the current crisis.
The governors have taken the extraordinary step of asking the Commerce Department for a federal disaster designation, a first step to get Congress to appropriate money for crabbers and the businesses that depend on them. But the Commerce Department could also decide the crisis was avoidable, or a cash-strapped Congress could do nothing.
The federal response doesn't satisfy the obligation Maryland and Virginia and - quite directly - their citizens, have to the watermen downstream from their lawns and businesses and farms. If the federal government won't provide aid, state governments must.
Whether they like it or not, the tremendous growth in the suburbs of both states has done serious harm to the Chesapeake Bay and, by extension, to the watermen. The least all those new citizens can do is help their neighbors in a time of need.
TO: SENATORS WEBB and WARNER: SUPPORT A FISHERY RESOURCE DISASTER!
Send emails to Virginia's US Senators asking them to support the decision for a Fishery Resource Disaster here in the Commonwealth of Virginia!
Senator Webb's Contact Page
Please copy and paste the following in your email to Senator Webb or add your own:
The Honorable Tim Webb
Dear Senator Webb,
As you are aware, Governor Kaine has requested that US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez perform a disaster assistance evaluation pertaining to Virginia’s Blue Crab fishery and ultimately declare a Fishery Resource Disaster.
I urge you to support Secretary Gutierrez in his decision. Any funds resulting from such a declaration would help to offset the financial losses suffered by the Virginia Watermen as new regulations, loss of habitat, and rising fuel costs greatly inhibit the watermen’s ability to earn a living.
Additionally, I would like for you to know that I support and Virginia waterman, the work of the Virginia Watermen's Association (http://virginiawaterman.org/), and a clean healthy Bay. Please help to preserve these cultural and natural resources that are vital to Virginia.
Sincerely
Senator Warner's Contact Page
Please copy and paste the following in your email to Senator Warner or add your own:
The Honorable John Warner
Dear Senator Warner,
As you are aware, Governor Kaine has requested that US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez perform a disaster assistance evaluation pertaining to Virginia’s Blue Crab fishery and ultimately declare a Fishery Resource Disaster.
I urge you to support Secretary Gutierrez in his decision. Any funds resulting from such a declaration would help to offset the financial losses suffered by the Virginia Watermen as new regulations, loss of habitat, and rising fuel costs greatly inhibit the watermen’s ability to earn a living.
Additionally, I would like for you to know that I support and Virginia waterman, the work of the Virginia Watermen's Association (http://virginiawaterman.org/), and a clean healthy Bay. Please help to preserve these cultural and natural resources that are vital to Virginia.
Sincerely
Virginia's Best Crabber
Gov. Kaine's Press Release and Letter to Sec. Guttierez
On May 2, 2008 Governor Tim Kaine asked the secretary of commerce to declare Virginia's crab fishery a disaster.
Read the press release Press Release
Read the letter to Secretary Guttierez Read Letter
State of Disaster
Excerpt from an email sent by
John M.R. Bull
Director of Public Relations
Virginia Marine Resources Commission
“Steve Bowman and I wanted to give a head’s up: Gov. Kaine just this morning formally requested that the federal government declare the blue crab fishery a disaster, thus making the watermen eligible for economic disaster relief.
The U.S. Secretary of Commerce would decide whether to issue such a disaster declaration. There is no telling on a time frame. If that happens, a congressional appropriation of unknown quantity of money would be up for a vote.
Maryland today will ask for the same disaster designation for their crab fishery.”
This is good news. My hopes are that this is the first step in recognizing that it is not just the blue crab that is in a state of disaster but the Chesapeake Bay as well.
I have a big wish list and one of those wishes is that the Federal and State will use the waterman and his knowledge in restoring the Bay. This is a win, win for all.
EMAIL YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE VIRGINIA WATERMAN NOW!
Send an email directly to our state representatives to let them know that you support the Virginia Watermen and a clean, healthy bay!
Governor Kaine's Contact Page
Please copy and paste the following in your email to Governor Kaine or add your own:
Dear Honorable Governor Kaine,
I would like to know how your office is working to protect the Commonwealth’s atmosphere, lands, and waters from pollution, impairment, or destruction, for the benefit, enjoyment, and general welfare of the people of the Commonwealth.
I am especially concerned with the degradation of the Chesapeake Bay and the impact it is having on the state’s watermen. I would like for you to know that I support and Virginia waterman, the work of the Virginia Watermen's Association (http://virginiawaterman.org/), and a clean healthy Bay. Please help to preserve these cultural and natural resources that are vital to Virginia.
Sincerely
Secretary Bryant's Contact Page
Please copy and paste the following in your email to Secretary Bryant or add your own:
Dear Honorable Secretary Bryant,
I would like to know how your office is working to protect the Commonwealth’s atmosphere, lands, and waters from pollution, impairment, or destruction, for the benefit, enjoyment, and general welfare of the people of the Commonwealth.
I am especially concerned with the degradation of the Chesapeake Bay and the impact it is having on the state’s watermen. I would like for you to know that I support and Virginia waterman, the work of the Virginia Watermen's Association (http://virginiawaterman.org/), and a clean healthy Bay. Please help to preserve these cultural and natural resources that are vital to Virginia.
Sincerely